S&P Global Ratings

In Episode 32, Steve H Wilkinson, Managing Director of Leveraged Finance at S&P Global Ratings, discusses an interesting case study of Trinseo’s creative debt structuring that helped the firm procure new debt financing to address pending near-term maturities. View Related Article: Leveraged Finance: Creative Structuring Helps Trinseo PLC, Comes With Lowered Recovery Prospects And Higher Costs

In 2022, European covered bond issuance reached levels unseen since 2011, with the French and German markets leading the way. We're joined by analysts Denitsa Carouget and Casper Andersen to discuss both of those markets. We provide overviews of both French and German covered bond markets, including relevant legal frameworks and recent market developments. We also go into how both markets are performing in “higher-for-longer” interest rate environments and discuss our forward-looking outlooks. Related Articles: French Covered Bond Market Insights 2023 German Covered Bond Market Insights 2023

We're joined by analyst Ana Lai and co-host Jim Manzi to discuss the global office sector’s uneven recovery post-pandemic. We dive into the vacancy rates in different regions around the world, pricing trends for the office sector in a higher-for-longer" interest rate environment, and office performance in relation to the CMBS market. We also discuss distributions of North American REIT debt maturities across commercial real estate sectors, especially for the office sector, and what that means for the market. Finally, we touch on our outlook for the U.S. office market going forward. Related Articles: SLIDES: Uneven Global Office Recovery Is Squeezing Credit Quality

Ex-U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and S&P Global Ratings' Global Chief Economist Paul Gruenwald join host Joe Cass on this episode of Fixed Income in 15. Discussion spans the rise and fall of inflation, working with U.S. Presidents, how to create an economic narrative and Larry’s experience being diagnosed with and surviving cancer. Sign-up here to be notified as soon as future episode are published View the series so far here

Analysts Daniel Hu, Rebecca Mun, and Abhijit Pawar join us to discuss U.S. and European BSL CLOs. First, we give a recap of a CLO panel at a recent S&P Global Ratings-hosted European Structured Finance conference, "Navigating Challenges; Seeking Opportunities," where amendments and extensions were a focus. We then deep dive into a comparative overview of U.S. and European BSL CLOs, going into specific similarities and nuances between CLOs from both markets. Related Articles: SLIDES: U.S. And European BSL CLOs: A Comparative Overview U.S. And European BSL CLOs: Comparitive Interactive European CLOs: The Long Road To Amortization

On July 28, 2023, S&P Global Ratings assigned its 'AAA (sf)' rating to the class A notes of Anyihua 2023 Phase III Personal Consumption Loan Asset Backed Securities, the first 'AAA (sf)' rating assigned by an international ratings agency to a securitization transaction in China backed by consumer finance assets. Analyst Andrea Lin joins up to discuss the analysis that went behind rating this transaction. We also discuss our outlook for China's consumer loan ABS sector as a whole. Related Articles: Credit FAQ: What's Behind The First 'AAA (sf)' Rating Assigned To Chinese Consumer Finance ABS? Aug. 24, 2023 New Issue: Anyihua 2023 Phase III Personal Consumption Loan Asset Backed Securities, July 28, 2023 A Primer On China's Consumer Loan ABS Market, June 9, 2023

Rohit Sipahimalani, CIO at Temasek and Martina Cheung, President of S&P Global Ratings join host Joe Cass on this episode of Fixed Income in 15. The discussion centred around disruptive investment areas, macro outlooks, private credit, the impact of Generative AI and the rise of India. Sign-up here to be notified as soon as future episode are published View the series so far here

In Episode 27, Minesh Patel, the U.S. sector lead of leveraged finance at S&P Global Ratings, and Hanna Zhang, the director of U.S. leveraged finance and recovery, discuss Hanna’s article titled: Disparities Emerge By Sector, Rating, Company Size, And Debt Cushion. Key takeaways from the article include: Earnings pressures were evident in the quarter as the momentum in revenue growth decelerated. However, the lower-rated 'B' category exhibited solid year-over-year EBITDA growth. To some extent, these entities even outperformed higher-rated 'BB' peers, particularly those operating in subsectors most susceptible to interest rates (homebuilders and real estate), navigating secular headwinds (TV and radio), or facing challenging comparisons (energy and commodity, retail discretionary). As the impact of cumulative monetary tightening takes hold, smaller and lower-rated companies face the highest ratings pressure. We found that borrowers with the smallest scale show much worse interest coverage, exacerbated by persistent free operating cash flow deficits. Their particularly weak credit measures differentiate them from larger counterparts. About 21% of 'B-' rated borrowers had EBITDA interest coverage of less than 1x in the 12 months ended on March 31, 2023. First-lien loans with a 30% or more debt cushion hold a significant advantage over those with a negligible or nonexistent cushion (i.e., a first-lien-only debt structure). We calculated an average gap of about 30% in our first-lien lender recovery estimate between the two. However, having a priority claim ahead of the first lien will result in an average reduction of another 2.5%. View related article: U.S. Leveraged Finance Q2 2023 Update: Disparities Emerge By Sector, Rating, Company Size, And Debt Cushion

Series 5, Episode 4: In this latest episode of our Leveraged Finance & CLOs Uncovered Podcast is out. This time, we discuss how rising interest rates and decreasing consumer confidence led to a downgrade of building material maker LSF10 XL Investments S.a.r.l. (Xella).